


A Soft Goodbye

by Cherry_TheGenZ



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Break Up Talk, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sad, Two-Sided Break-Up, but make it gentle, gentle angst, if that makes sensee??, soft angst, soft breakup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28696275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherry_TheGenZ/pseuds/Cherry_TheGenZ
Summary: Sapnap sees how Dream looks at George, and even if it hurts he knows it’s better to let go.--Their breakup is quiet.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 17
Kudos: 327
Collections: MCYT





	A Soft Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> i made. soft angst. wack.

Sapnap remembers comfortable shows of affection. Holding hands in public, the warmth on his palm a reminder of the love he and Dream shared. Casually cuddling on the couch just because they wanted to be near each other. Soft kisses pressed to lightly pink cheeks. Loving Dream felt like softly touching cotton-candy clouds, like Dream carefully hung up stars for him. Their love thrummed under his skin, a gentle reminder he was cared for. Their relationship was not electricity or excitement, but warmth and affection. 

He just wishes that warmth and affection was enough for Dream.

Oh, he could tell tales of the long journey they took to reach where they are now. He could tell them with a soft smile, dipped in admiration and warm with affection. 

Sapnap doesn’t think it would be right to tell such stories now.

Ever so quietly and slowly does the warmth become cold. It brings a chill under Sapnap’s skin, and the realization does not hurt him sharply as it should.

It is more of a dull ache of resignation. Maybe Sapnap always knew that Dream wouldn’t be settled for calm, warm affection. Maybe Sapnap knew Dream craved a spark, electricity thrumming under his fingertips instead of an easy warmth.

Sapnap wishes so dearly to keep the memory of Dream’s love close, to not let it fade. But he already knows it has long been gone, in a way Sapnap could not stop it no matter how much he tried. There was no possible way to keep it from slipping away from his fingertips, from escaping and leaving him all alone.

And so Sapnap stares sadly into Dream’s beautiful green eyes, and tells himself he will be okay.

\--

It is not loud or angry. It’s not full of insults meant to fester and burn. It is quiet and soft. But maybe quiet goodbyes hurt more than exploding into a mess.

Their breakup is quiet. There is a tension in the air, light but still there and full of slight disappointment and sadness. Sapnap is calm. Calm in a way Dream hasn’t quite seen him.

Sapnap knows exactly what he is doing. He is breaking off a relationship of four years. A relationship worn down by age, the string connecting the two going threadbare and almost broken.

Sapnap would prefer to break up quietly like this, with resignation filling his bones rather than to leave in the future. Maybe, in another universe, Sapnap would choose to stay. To hope Dream’s heart finds its way back into his hands. But inevitably, if Sapnap had chosen such a path, he’d have left in an angry fire, betrayal turning to sadness and turning to anger in which he could not have stopped.

And so Sapnap prefers this. A clean breakup, where the two can properly talk it out before it ruins their relationship even more.

Because although Sapnap will be losing a lover, he does not wish to lose a friend.

Dream is quiet, as well, as Sapnap talks.    
  
“I think we should break up,” Sapnap says- not wishing to prolong this. They both knew it would inevitably happen. These are words Sapnap had never wished to say or hear, but here they sit on their shared couch and his mouth utters the terrible phrase.

Dream looks caught off-guard, but not surprised. Dream had known for a while now. It was in the air- they’d both been waiting to make a move.

“Okay,” Dream agrees softly. They don’t need to speak aloud of the reasons for it. The answer to all of their questions have been answered, in the weeks Sapnap waited to talk. Their fire had long since been blown out; their love worn down and tried.

Sapnap gently grabs Dream’s hands, feeling each callous and finger, each joint. It is something Sapnap always did to calm the blond, who got anxious but did not show it easily.

“This isn’t goodbye,” Sapnap says, not looking into Dream’s eyes but now at Dream’s hands. Dream makes a humming noise of agreement, of acceptance.

It aches. It hurts, and Sapnap knows he will silently cry later, mourn the loss of a love so beautiful it worn itself dry.

But their break-up is not one-sided or loud; it is calm and accepting from both sides, understanding and equal. So Sapnap will be okay with it. He knows he will not be fine immediately- he knows there will be ghost memories of warm touches, nostalgia for cold mornings spent cuddling in bed. But he  _ will  _ be fine. Not right now, not immediately, but eventually after the mourning and dull ache of loneliness, Sapnap will move on.

Time moves on, and Sapnap will move on alongside it.

  
  


\--

It is two years later that Sapnap is walking with his closest friend through the city. Karl’s laugh is a bit strange, but a familiar sound and close to his heart. They walk past Dream’s favorite cafe, and Sapnap catches Dream and George sitting in a booth. Dream looks happy. So Sapnap smiles and waves, even if the two hadn’t seen him. It is not as though they have not talked; Sapnap is the one who helps Dream off his feet, who lets Dream cry on his shoulder on nights Dream cannot handle loving George so strongly as he does. 

Because Sapnap still knows Dream far better than anyone, from a friendship lasting years and a relationship of four years; they will always know each other like the back of their hand. 

That is why they talk comfortably. Why Sapnap is okay with his ex smiling at another, with Dream coming to him crying over another. Why Dream teases him about Karl, pokes and prods. They are soulmates in the way they will always be connected to each other, even if it is not romantically.

Sapnap really is okay with that.

  
Even more so when he one day gains the courage to  _ finally  _ ask Karl out, to press a warm kiss to Karl’s soft lips. Then his days are full of memorizing all of Karl’s happy-dances, of turning bright red at the sight of Karl in his hoodies, of holding the energetic man in his arms and peckering his face with kisses. 

**Author's Note:**

> karlnap makes me go <3
> 
> adawidwn i had no clue how to tag this but it did come from my friend showing me soft dreamnotnap and me going: what if i kept the soft, took out the george, then made it a breakup one-shot


End file.
